Lots of old, cheap, and low quality speakers lying around... what to do with 'em?

[herektor]

Hi! first of all, im not audio knowledge savvy, at all, i know absolutely zero about audio.

I have good ears and I enjoy listening to quality music, but I dont have a even decent sounding system and it's killing me. So i decided it's time to get myself what i want.

Problem is, my budget is like 20 USD


So, since im in this hobo situation I would like to know if it is possible to make some decent speakers with what i have lying around
I'm looking to do either 2.1 or 5.1 speakers for my PC (gaming, music, movies, in that order).


- genius PC speakers (a 5.1 and a 2.1),

- a 1990ish sony cd radio (cheap, stereo),

- an old, 80's sony vinyl player with 2 large wood speakers (both are kinda broken and rusty, dont kno if they work)

- a cheap, "nex brand", supermarket-grade 5.1 speaker and dvd player system for TV

- Like 4 cheap 2.0 pc speakers (chinese crappy brands)

- a usb 2.0 samsung Pleomax pair of pc speakers.

- "Gold Star" brand stereo cassette player, looks like those carried around on the shoulders by rappers in the 90's or something like that.


So, is it possible? im willing to dissasemble everything.

 

[bob91343]

You probably can't do much. Since you have nothing to lose, take all the speakers and put them in a single enclosure, connecting them in series-parallel so the result is still near 8 Ohms and listen. The fact that none of the speakers is working hard, and there are so many, it's possible that the result might be acceptable.

Bear in mind that cheap speakers are not generally durable, can't take much power, and don't have wide frequency response.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as the ancient axiom goes.

 

[indianajo]

Rules for making bass out of tiny speakers. Mount the speaker in a corner of a largeish box, like a 1961 RCA phono player. Put fiberglass insulation, usually found by the side of the road near any building site in texas, in the box to break up standing waves. If you have two of the same speaker, mount about a 1/4 wavelength apart if you can afford that much plywood. Still kind of off center. Stiffen box with internal reinforcements at corners to prevent vibration. Elmer's glue is good, as is liquid nails. Sealing the box is one way to increase bass. Another is doing a lot of calculating I don't know how to do, and building a bass reflex port in the front. See the multi-element speaker thread for box designs. Another tip- charity resale shops sometimes have car speakers with whizzer cones, which increase highs. Also junkyards, also abandoned cars, in the doors, usually. The world is full of abanodoned bargains headed for the dump. Some high end but non-HDTV's available for free may have some middling good audio components in them.

 

[maurycy]

That's a tiny budget and probably not enough for decent 2.1 system. If I were you, I would just look for vintage speakers that sometimes you can get very cheap. You will probably spend more than $20 if you have to build a new enclosures unless you work in woodworking shop. Subwoofer is another story as the amp itself costs more than $20.

I got JBL P20 speakers for $20 and recently sold my Infinity 8" subwoofer for $25. Something like that may be a better idea than trying to work with whatever you have available. Even the P20s without subwoofer are pretty decent and not too big.

 

[kach22i]

I don't know if Chile is anything like the USA, but you might try going up and down the streets of the student section of a "college town" which attracts rich kids who never worked for anything in their life. Around here they throw out good working TV's and stereo systems, just leaving them in the trash or dumpster behind their apartment building. Many times they leave good stuff on the front curb for other students or homeless people to pick up for free.